IdeemaSun energy completes 2MW PV facility in Romania

The 2MW power plant will produce 2,700 MWh of solar power annually. Image: IdeemaSun energy.

IdeemaSun energy, a Germany-based specialist in large-scale solar projects, has installed and connected a 2MW PV project in Romania.

Located around 20 km north of Bucharest, the PV project was built in just three weeks. As EPC contractor, IdeemaSun energy installed around 8,300 Hanwha SolarOne modules as well as 66 Power-One inverters during this time.

The power plant will produce 2,700 MWh of solar power annually which will be fed into energy supplier ENEL’s grid.

As part of Romania’s green certificate subsidy scheme, the operators of the 2MW power plant will receive six CO2 credits for a period of 15 years.

Under this scheme, power plants with a capacity of up to 10MW will receive six green certificates for every megawatt hour of electricity they produce for a period of 15 years. The power plant operators can either trade these certificates at the energy exchange or sell them directly to energy suppliers or energy-intensive businesses. These businesses need the certificates in order to comply with the government’s mandatory quota model.

In 2012 the government required energy suppliers to source 12% of their power from renewable sources. This figure rose to 14% this year and will increase by 1% every year between 2014 and 2018. If a company fails to meet this quota, it will need to purchase the appropriate number of emission certificates at a price of €110 (US$146.70) each.

Romania is an important market for IdeemaSun. Meik Rekowski, Managing Director of IdeemaSun energy explains: "We see big potential for growth in the Romanian market, and our internationalisation strategy has gotten to a very good start with this quick and successful project. Our project pipeline currently amounts to about 30 MW. In order to better meet customer needs on site, we will set up a new subsidiary in Bucharest within the next two months."

Looking back, 2014 was a year of convalescence for a PV industry still battered and bruised from a period of ferocious competition. End-market demand continued apace, with analysts towards the end of 2014 predicting the year would see between around 45 and 50GW of deployment. That has begun to feed through to the supplier end of the market, with all the main manufacturers announcing capacity expansions in 2015 and further ahead.

Although the past few years have proved extremely testing for PV equipment manufacturers, falling module prices have driven solar end-market demand to previously unseen levels. That demand is now starting to be felt by manufacturers, to the extent that leading companies are starting to talk about serious capacity expansions later this year and into 2015. This means that the next 12 months will be a critical period if companies throughout the supply chain are to take full advantage of the PV industry’s next growth phase.